Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Learning Curve


"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."


- Anton Ego (Peter O'Toole) Ratatouille (2007)



I've been garnering a lot of approval of my positive review of Drive and my negative review of Yogi Bear. However, I've also gained highly negative criticism for my positive review of Footloose. This is not to say people can't enjoy one film and not another. This is America, the land of opportunity. Anybody can say whatever they want about a film they enjoy or don't enjoy.




I can't change my opinion of Footloose. It is a highly entertaining, wonderfully charming and all-in-all sweet film. Many, including film fans that I have deep respect for, have flat-out told me that Craig Brewer should not have wasted his time on this "stupid remake of that $#*!ty-ass '80s movie". Others have said:



"He has NO valid artistic reason for doing this!"

"If you think Footloose is a good movie, then I think drug testing is in order."

"Here's how much [I] want to see Footloose..... ZERO."

"Why anyone would want to remake a piece of tripe like Footloose is beyond me!"




I would imagine you get the point. If Footloose was as painful-looking as Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star, I would gladly join them. But enough care and time was given to it by Craig Brewer to elevate it beyond the simple title of "unwanted remake". It includes a lot of warmth and love to soften even the hardest critic's heart, if they are legitimately open to it and not let cynicism rule their lives. Filmmakers often get too much anger over their projects and when they come out to explain their choices, fanboys often rip them to shreds and want to string them up by the celluloid strips of their most-hated films.


As I've said before, Steven Spielberg received a lot of anger and hatred from displeased fanboys over elements (and to some, the whole) of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Spielberg did his best to douse the flames by proclaiming that the Blu-Ray of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial would only include the original 1982 version of the film and not the 2002 Anniversary Edition featuring digitized walkie-talkies replacing shotguns. And now, Spielberg has finally answered the damning 2008-era critics.


"I'm very happy with the movie. I always have been... I sympathise with people who didn't like the MacGuffin because I never liked the MacGuffin. George and I had big arguments about the MacGuffin. I didn't want these things to be either aliens or inter-dimensional beings. But I am loyal to my best friend. When he writes a story he believes in - even if I don't believe in it - I'm going to shoot the movie the way George envisaged it. I'll add my own touches, I'll bring my own cast in, I'll shoot the way I want to shoot it, but I will always defer to George as the storyteller of the Indy series. I will never fight him on that."



"Hey, George? George! Watch me invent the troll face!"


Now, granted, I can see how easy it would be for Spielberg in his position to say, "IT WAS ALL GEORGE'S IDEA! IT WASN'T MY FAULT! I SWEAR!" Especially when most people are seeing red after the double-whammys of the altered Star Wars Blu-Rays and the upcoming release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D. I'm sure he's received a damn decent share of death threats (maybe even from people I consider friends).



"Man... I'm standing next to Steven Spielberg. My life has meaning!"


May 22, 2008: When many people claimed their childhood was raped. When their hero was seemingly destroyed across a vast cinematic canvass. Indiana Jones, to them, was dead. The blame game had started. In 2010, during press tours for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Shia LaBeouf was reportedly prodded about his role in Crystal Skull and its derided place in pop culture. LaBeouf was said to have gotten heated over the question and said, "I think the audience is pretty intelligent. I think they know when you’ve made (slop). And I think if you don’t acknowledge it, then why do they trust you the next time you’re promoting a movie. You can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven.... We [Ford and LaBeouf] had major discussions. He wasn't happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn’t universally accepted….We need to be able to satiate the appetite. I think we just misinterpreted what we were trying to satiate. I’ll probably get a call. But he needs to hear this. I love him. I love Steven. I have a relationship with Steven that supersedes our business work. And believe me, I talk to him often enough to know that I’m not out of line. And I would never disrespect the man. I think he’s a genius, and he’s given me my whole life. He’s done so much great work that there’s no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball you drop the ball." A year later, during his own press tours for Cowboys & Aliens, Harrison Ford had simply this to say, "I think he was a f*cking idiot. As an actor, I think it's my obligation to support the film without making a complete a** of myself."




So who is really at fault here? Many would scream their heads off saying, "LUCAS!" Others would vehemently say, "SPIELBERG!" Still few would say, "LABEOUF SUCKS," and not even be referring to Crystal Skull (while they beat him up outside a bar). Personally, I don't know why anyone hasn't blamed Jeff Nathanson, specifically by name. Oh wait. Cause he only wrote Crystal Skull, Catch Me If You Can, Rush Hour 2 and 3, The Terminal, Speed 2: Cruise Control and the upcoming Tower Heist (and we all know there's plenty wrong with that movie). Not the best track record ever.




I would like to think Steven Spielberg is one of those rare directors who learns from his mistakes. Take 1941. Yes, 1941. This was after Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He was on top of the world. This was his chance to do a real big-budget comedy epic. About the day after Pearl Harbor. Yeah. Though he was smart to make fun of his own movie Jaws in the opening scene, Spielberg was dismayed to see that no one was laughing in a test screening. Although the film was a financial hit, it did not make the same amount of money that Spielberg's previous films made. Spielberg was practically defeated. Until he was sitting on a beach in Hawaii with a friend of his who had a new idea for a film that would feature America's version of James Bond. That friend was George Lucas and the movie was Raiders of the Lost Ark.




I would take Spielberg at his word here and trust that he will not lead audiences astray with The Adventures of Tintin. And from all the reviews coming from overseas, it appears that we Americans have quite a treat coming in December. And if you don't like that... hey, you get a drama from Spielberg. War Horse.

Friday, October 21, 2011

DRIVE: Ryan Gosling's A Real Hero


Let's face it. Action is one of the greatest genres Hollywood brings to the general public. And why not? It is riveting, full-blown and never fails to give audiences adrenaline-packed thrills! But of course there are differences in this genre. In essence, there is dumb action and smart action. Dumb action movies include Justin Lin's Fast and Furious, Neveldine/Taylor's Gamer, and of course, the grandaddy of 'em all, Michael Bay's Transformers series. Smart action movies include Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark, Duncan Jones' Source Code, and Michael Mann's Heat. But there is a new film to add to the smart action group, Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive.


You may be noticing I'm not posting the full trailer. I think it's a bit spoilerish to be bluntly honest. That and you'd possibly mistake it for Fast Five.

The first major thing I took away from this movie: Never again will I ever underestimate Ryan Gosling. Before I saw Drive, I saw him (as must guys probably do) as "that Notebook guy", the pansy, the hearthrob. In my particular case, he's also the guy who's taking Emma Stone away from me in movies (Crazy, Stupid, Love). But that's a different story. (Emma....) But in Drive, Gosling is allowed to show his badass side. His character doesn't even have a name, just "The Driver". How cool is that?


The film opens with the best subtle action set piece I have seen since the opening of The Dark Knight. You see The Driver laying down his rules (as you heard in the above video): "If I drive for you, you give me a time and a place. I give you a five-minute window, anything happens in that five minutes and I'm yours no matter what. I don't sit in while you're running it down; I don't carry a gun... I drive." Automatically out of the gate, the character is laying down the law. Immediately after this is the heist (which we don't care about) and The Driver sitting, waiting. He has a watch with him and its ticking is almost pulse-like. We're led to believe that the goons are not gonna make it and he's gonna drive off and leave them. But they make it in enough time and so starts the getaway:


The clip ends just as the going gets good. But there's a small taste of the quiet yet thrilling action that fuels Drive.

The Driver spends his days as a stunt driver for movies (although he has no name, on his police officer's costume a nametag reads "McCall", so I figured that just as well could be his name). He impresses his boss, Shannon (Bryan Cranston), so much that he mentions him to a friend of his, former movie producer Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks in a rare non-comedy role). Shannon says: "You put this kid behind the wheel and he can do anything." Shannon wants The Driver to drive a racecar that Bernie has just bought. Bernie himself is impressed when he meets the usually quiet Driver.

"I'm looking for my son, Nemo."

At the same time, The Driver meets a young woman, Irene (Carey Mulligan), and her son, Benicio who lives a few doors away from him at his apartment complex. He begins to feel affectionate for them as he helps her out with her constantly malfunctioning car and offers them a ride home. Here's a clip from the scene that details a bit of backstory of The Driver and shows his sweet sensative side:


She clearly feels the same towards him but she already has a husband, a soon-to-be-released convict named Standard. When Standard meets him, the tension is near unbearable. Is he going to be upset after hearing about how much time The Driver has spent with his wife? Unusually (at least in my opinion), Standard does not feel any anomosity towards The Driver and accepts him as a friend of the family. One night, The Driver finds Standard beaten and bloodied in a parking garage. Standard tells him that he is supposed to owe $20,000 in "protection money" from a guy he knew in prison. The Driver wanting to protect this family, offers Standard his help. Without spoiling anything, the heist to take $20,000 goes horribly wrong and sends The Driver speeding away from the caper with another car chasing after him: something that's never happened before (outside of the police).  The Driver is furious and wants justice. With his set of skills and a little attitude, he's gonna find out who is chasing him and end it.

This is one of those films that on the outside looks like a straight-forward action film with dumb, senseless action. But what differs Drive from Fast Five (like the dumb woman who is suing FilmDistrict will never recognize) is that it has a beating heart and soul. Its characters are infinitely more important than its action sequences (there are really only two decent car stunt sequences in the entire film). Gosling delivers a solid performance as The Driver. Mulligan is an actress I'm not quite fond of but she did well in this film. Thanks to Drive, I will never be able to watch Finding Nemo the same way again. Albert Brooks really went out of his way to break free of his comedy roots (his last feature film was The Simpsons Movie) and tried something new, showing his amazing prowess as an actor (his next film will be a return to comedy in Judd Apatow's This is 40). So, if you haven't seen this movie, rev up your engines and get out there! The clock is ticking.


Song: "Tick of the Clock" by The Chromatics

Friday, October 14, 2011

FOOTLOOSE: Let's Hear it for the Boy!

NOTE: Please be courteous and read the ENTIRE review before responding. Thanks - Zack



"I know you gotta do what you gotta do, but that ain't gonna stop it from happening."

"This is our time."


- Ren McCormack (Kenny Wormald) Footloose (2011)

Public opinion is an immovable, unshakable animal. It can either lift movies onto a pedestal (The Hangover, The Blind Side) or tear them apart and throw them into the abyss (Mars Needs Moms, Take Me Home Tonight). This is, in part, due to instantaneous social media like Twitter and Facebook. Today, a film's reputation can live or die online before a person even walks into a theater. The type of films with automatically bad reputations these days are remakes. Most people think of remakes as Hollywood scraping the bottom of the barrel, eager to find something easy to slap a brand name on. People are disappointed to see recast, retooled, reinvented versions of movies they knew from the past. Now, I'm not saying all remakes are bad. Many great filmmakers have helmed remakes - Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear, the Coen Bros.' True Grit, John Carpenter's The Thing (which of course also gets a remake/prequel today as well, Peter Jackson's King Kong, and Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Good remakes must always pay tribute to its predecessors (in subtle and tasteful ways) while also telling their own version of the same story. This is completely true of the 2011 version of the classic "fight-for-your-right" dancing movie Footloose, directed by Memphian Craig Brewer.



The original Footloose was released on February 17th, 1984 starring rising star Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, Chris Penn, Dianne Wiest, (a young) Sarah Jessica Parker and John Lithgow. With an $8 million budget, the film skyrocketed to an impressive $80 million worldwide. The film's rockin' title song performed by Kenny Loggins and Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It for The Boy" were nominated for an Academy Award (alongside Ray Parker Jr.'s "Ghostbusters"). A decade later, Footloose was adapted into a stage musical which revived popularity in the film. Actors like Bacon and Lithgow were asked if they would attend a few of these performances, which they genuinely enjoyed.


However, in Hollywood, many executives saw value in these dance films like Footloose, Dirty Dancing, and Flashdance and wanted to replicate them - as cheaply as possible. So movies like Step Up, You Got Served and Honey were made. Out of these, only Step Up found immense success and led to three sequels. In 2006, Disney Channel landed an unexpected cash cow with famed choreographer/director Kenny Ortega's popular TV movie High School Musical. With bright, happy young people dancing and grooving singing to hip music - it was a license to print money. Then came the repercussions - a remake of the John Waters film Hairspray (which was based more off of the Broadway musical), a remake of Fame (which, although the film was a box office success, went nowhere with the general public) and the popular TV show "Glee" (which is worshiped by the general public). Paramount still thought a Footloose remake had value and after Adam Goodman stepped in as the head of the studio, he wanted a new director.


Enter Craig Brewer. He had directed the urban hit Hustle & Flow (which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" by Three 6 Mafia) and the blues drama Black Snake Moan (starring Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci and Justin Timberlake). Brewer had grown up being a fan of the '84 film, even going so far as to record the entire film on a Walkman so he could listen to it wherever he went. He could identify with Ren McCormack, the city boy who came down to the country and was chastised for listening to rock music. Brewer was offered the director's chair two separate times and turned it down both times. He didn't see the need to tell a story when he felt it had already been told better the first time. A few months later, he realized that there was another way the story could be told: bringing an emphasis on the overreaction of the Bomont townspeople and why they banned dancing. In the '84 film, audiences learn an hour into the film as to why public dancing is outlawed. He returned to Paramount and agreed to direct as long as he didn't have to make the cutesy Ortega musical version (there is only one instance of people singing in the original Footloose, in the church scene where the congregation stands and sings "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"). He asked the executives to go back and watch the original film to see how much they got away with in 1984. The executives agreed to let Brewer make the film his own way.



Kenny Wormald plays 18-year-old Ren McCormack who comes to Bomont, GA. He boards up with his aunt's family after a personal tragedy. As he soon discovers, the town is under strict laws prohibiting public dancing and loud music. This is due to a horrible accident that took the lives of five teenagers. The head pastor of the town, Rev. Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid) - who lost a son in the crash - was behind the ban. Ren decides he is going to stick up for the beleaguered teen population and protest the law. As he does so, he falls in love with the preacher's licentious, sexually-driven daughter, Ariel (played to near perfection by Julianne Hough) which, of course, raises the ire of her father and her stock-car driver boyfriend Chuck (Patrick John Flueger). With nearly everyone in town against him, Ren becomes a rebel with a cause and must be true to himself in order to cut loose. Footloose.



The acting in the film is incredible. They are not "Glee" rejects or bland, unimaginative line-readers. These are quality actors who deeply care about making their performances real and believable. Like his extremely light and athletic counterpart, Kenny Wormald will be springing from near obscurity to the top of the spotlight. He is much better than Zac Efron and Chase Crawford would ever have been. Likewise, Julianne Hough's performance personifies the vivacious Southern bad girl who falls hard for the boy from Boston. She is definitely one to watch. What more can be said about Dennis Quaid? I love his films - especially Innerspace, The Rookie and Great Balls of Fire. His role of Rev. Shaw Moore is actually more credible today that John Lithgow's was in 1984. Because Quaid chooses to play an ACTUAL Baptist preacher rather than the well-known and well-derided screaming pastor stereotype, he adds emotionality to what was once a one-dimensional character. Not to say Lithgow isn't a quality actor, but - to me - he just went straight for the stereotype.



The supporting cast is just as impressive - Miles Teller is a comedic wunderkind who must surely have a long and healthy career or I will be highly, highly disappointed. He brings the film a sense of light and fun in between the drama. In fact, if you are not smiling or laughing when (the original) "Let's Hear It For the Boy" comes on, you have no soul. Ziah Colon, who takes up the role of Rusty from Sarah Jessica Parker, is an absolute vision. She is just so much fun to watch and her scenes with Teller are genius. Like Quaid, Ray McKennon takes the relatively mild and thankless role of Uncle Wes from 1984 and brings a warmth and heart to the character in 2011. It really shows that Ren is not alone in his fight.




In the end, Footloose's message of fighting (either peacefully or violently) for your rights is an important one for the former generation and today's generation. Although dancing is a large part of the film's celebration, it also celebrates friendship and morality. If one takes both films with this in mind, there shouldn't be any hate or snarkiness. You should just be true to yourself and cut loose. Footloose.



"It seems that a lot of people are pointing the finger in your direction lately."
"And what have they said?"


- Wes (Arthur Rosenberg) and Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) Footloose (1984)



Song: "Footloose" by Blake Shelton

"'You deal with your pain in extremes,' the minister is told. The line is a key to Brewer's filmography: All the director's movies are about people who deal with their pain in extremes, and the plots chronicle the consequences of their coping." - Commercial Appeal
"Footloose is fancy-free, an iconic movie's tribute that could stand on its own two, tapping feet." - St. Petersberg Times
"Sure, it sings a familiar tune. But it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it." - Hollywood.com
"'Footloose' remake is almost paradise." - Boston Herald
"By the time four little girls teach a dorky guy to dance to (the original) "Let's Hear It for the Boy" I was a gelatinous blob of pure affection." - New York Post
"It's the single most harmless teen movie in the recent cinematic landscape, and also one of the most charmingly fun." - Movies.com
"Give credit to Craig Brewer, the filmmaker behind the new Footloose, for realizing a new step was in order." - Dallas Morning News
"It's a vibrant youth musical that will appeal to audiences who haven't seen the 1984 original. And it has enough charm and life to it to compete with the memory of the earlier version." - San Francisco Chronicle
"Brewer's hot-and-bothered remake uncorks the original's raging libido, and it's as seamy and sordid as that damnable PG-13 rating will allow." - A.V. Club
"Don't hate Footloose because it's a remake. The dance-movie-love-story-freedom-of-expression thumper is a rollicking good time." - Cleveland Plain Dealer
"It's as if Brewer is taking a stand for movies that look like movies instead of audience hipness barometers." - Movieline

"If you can leave your cynicism at the door then this is top-quality Saturday night popcorn entertainment." - Digital Spy



UPDATE
How the above picture was taken (from my Best of 2011 list):

"The first time I saw it was in July, when director Craig Brewer brought the film to town for a special sneak preview. I waited in line in front of a local DVD/Blu-Ray store at 8 AM, he came and brought donuts, recognized me BY NAME (nearly lost my $#*!) and handed out tickets. I drove over to the theater and waited across the parking lot outside of a Whole Foods Market sweating to death with only my laptop, a Mexican Coca-Cola and a small cup of Ben & Jerry’s. Finally, it came time to see the movie (before waiting in another line). Mr. Brewer came out to introduce it, told us some stories about how he was offered the movie and what the original
Footloose meant to him. I saw it, I enjoyed it immensely. I thanked Mr. Brewer for the opportunity to see the movie early, got a picture with him and an autograph. Then came October 14th, when the movie was released to the general public. I didn’t have the money to go see it opening day, but I heard Craig Brewer was in town to open it up locally and I wanted to wish him good luck for the movie’s opening weekend. I went by the theater where he was, bumped into him and said good luck to him. He asked me if I was seeing the movie that night. I told him, I would love to, but I simply didn’t have the money. He says, 'No problem,' and he hands me a free ticket. Cue exuberance. So I brought my laptop into the lobby, sat at a table and started writing while he’s signing posters and posing for pictures with people. After about two minutes with no one coming in, he comes over and sits down and we start chatting. Then, his phone rings. He says, 'I’m sorry, I gotta take this.' He then looks at the screen and says, 'Look who it is.' He shows me the screen and it says 'Dennis Quaid'. Cue awesomeness. He gets to talking to him and I’m just sitting in awe."

Monday, October 10, 2011

YOGI BEAR: The Horror. The Horror.

I consider myself a pretty optimistic guy when it comes to films. There is rarely a film I would out-and-out hate. I'm the kind of guy who will defend The Phantom Menace when I have no leg to stand on and I'm outnumbered. But there is one film I would gladly join the angry mob storming Warner Bros. Pictures for. That movie is Yogi Bear.


Still here? SERIOUSLY?! FOR REAL?! Dang it. Now I gotta move on.

This film is a slap in the face to everyone that has ever enjoyed a "Yogi Bear" cartoon. I mean, who (Shut Up) doesn't love the ORIGINAL "Yogi Bear"? 


Yogi and Boo Boo are two mischievous bears living in the wilderness known as Jellystone Park, happy and free. They spend their time inventing new schemes to take tourists' picnic baskets. But because the lifeless jerk of a Mayor (which begs the question, WHERE IS JELLYSTONE?) wants to run for Governor, he has to find more funds for the city; seeing as he blew it all on his campaign. So he decides he's gonna tear down Jellystone Park and sell off the land to logging companies. In a movie for children. Do they get it? No. Do you get it? Moving on.


If this was taken from a scene in one of the Scary Movie films, I'd be laughing. But I'm not.


At the same time, a nature-loving filmmaker arrives to Jellystone. Her name is Rachel played by the usually funny Anna Faris. She meets with Ranger Smith played by where-the-heck-did-they-get-this-piece-of-wooden-acting Tom Cavanagh (who looks or sounds nothing like the original Ranger Smith). She wants to make a film detailing the all the creatures that live in Jellystone Park. And who better than the park's two most impish inhabitants? I'm asking the question, who better? Seriously. Anybody?



I am disappointed. You two know better. Now stop enjoying it.


Let me take a minute to introduce our voice actors. Dan Aykroyd and Justin "Hometown Hero" Timberlake. Sounds great in theory, right? Hahaha... WRONG!! It hurts me to say these things about these two fine gentlemen! They're both wonderful actors! I'm sure they had a genuine love of the series, but they could not have read the script to this film and thought, "This is great! I'm so glad I did this! What a good career move!" NO! WRONG! AGAIN! Aykroyd! GHOSTBUSTERS III! NOW!

So, Yogi and Boo Boo are put in charge of taking footage of their forest wildlife (which we don't see much of and basically is a waste of a plot device until later in the film). Ranger Smith and Rachel are told about the Mayor's plot to get rid of Jellystone and decide to raise the money for the park by holding a 100th Anniversary party and get more people to sign lifetime memberships. However, the Mayor (Andrew Daly) corrupts one of Smith's own, Ranger Jones (T.J. Miller) - who has got to be one of the stupidest people on Earth - by telling him once Jellystone is shut down he will make him Head Ranger. Like that makes any sense; to kids or adults.
The film is full of big insults to filmgoers (even more so than Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, which somehow manages to do everything a movie is NOT SUPPOSED to do). Among the most offensive is the worst use of the famous Wilhelm scream. What's that? You've never heard of the Wilhelm scream? Surely, you jest! It's been a part of a lot of famous movies from Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Toy Story, Reservoir-- oh, for crying out loud...




THERE! Now, the scene starts with Yogi getting in trouble with Ranger Smith (a classic scenario from the original show). He tries to get away and smacks himself right into a tree. THEN - a pinecone falls on his eye. A pinecone. He screams the Wilhelm scream. Inexcusable. Unforgivable. How could it get any worse? It can. Just don't ask why. Yogi and Boo Boo decide that they too want to help save Jellystone. They decide to put together a little dance number. These two characters - characters that have been around since 1958 - start dancing to Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back". My jaw was at the floor. Later they decide they want to dance to one of my most beloved songs, Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'". At this point, I screamed something at my TV that I don't really want to repeat for mixed company could possibly be reading.


So there you have it. Unnecessary pop culture references, the worst use of a famous sound effect in history and actors that are clearly doing the film for a paycheck. Warner Bros. Pictures presents A Eric Brevig Film Dan Aykroyd Justin Timberlake Yogi Bear. Exits to your left. Feel drained? Yeah. Feel ticked off? OH YEAH. Wish this was the real ending? ME TOO.